Travelling by Train around Malaysia

If you like train rides, then you will surely enjoy the rail services provided around Malaysia. There are in general a few major types of rail services in Malaysia which are as follow:

Heavy Rail Services – This service is provided by KTM (Keretapi Tanah Melayu), the national rail company of the country. KTM mainly provides rail connection between the states around Peninsular Malaysia and with its neighbours Thailand in the north and Singapore. This is provided via the KTM West Coast Line which connects Singapore with Padang Besar in Perlis while Gemas in Negeri Sembilan and Tumpat along the east coast is connected via the KTM East Coast Line.

Besides the heavy rail service, KTM provides the KTM Komuter service as well which has 2 main routes connecting Seremban (Negeri Sembilan) with Rawang (Selangor) and Sentul (Kuala Lumpur) with Port Klang (Selangor)

High-Speed Rail Services – This is a service provided to connect Kuala Lumpur with the KLIA and klia2 International airports respectively. Besides that, a plan to provide high-speed rail services between Malaysia and Singapore is set to be completed in 2020.

Mass Rail Transit – The Klang Valley Mass Rail Transit System will start in 2016 and is expected to be the main transportation mode that will ferry millions of commuters around Kuala Lumpur and Selangor. It has been projected that the Sungai Buloh-Kajang line, which connects major parts like Cheras with the city centre and to Damansara will be ferrying almost half a million passengers daily covering about 1.2 million population.

Light Rail Transit – Known in short as LRT, it provides commuters around the Klang Valley covering Kuala Lumpur and Selangor. Operated by RapidKL, it has 2 main lines namely Kelana Jaya and Ampang lines respectively. This service would be the most convenient to get around the Klang Valley if you are going around on foot.

Monorail Services – This is used only in Kuala Lumpur and is elevated across the city. The company responsible to run this service is KL Monorail which runs across a 8.6km stretch through most tourist attractions.

Funicular rail – This service is available only in Penang at the Penang Hill as a mode of transport towards the top of the hill used mainly by tourists.